Climate Change
A sustainable future is fundamental to our vision for Australia. Environmental sustainability is one of the Sidney Myer Fund and The Myer Foundation’s five core values while addressing climate change is one of the two abiding themes of the current (FY19–23) strategic plan.
Our philanthropy is informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and we recognise the imperative of the UN Paris Agreement and the IPCC special report to limit global warming to at least 1.5 degrees and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and the urgent action required by 2030 to achieve this target.
The Myer Foundation is pursuing a suite of strategies – a portfolio approach – to advance our commitment to environmental sustainability. Grantmaking is focused on organisations taking discrete but complementary approaches to affecting systemic change, as well as direct action through the investment of TMF’s own financial resources.
Seven levers of change are currently targeted under the portfolio approach:
- public policy: developing collaborative, strategic and effective policy actions
- education & awareness: educating and informing key demographic sectors using trusted, credible voices
- political discourse: fostering leadership within state and federal governments and key constituencies
- business & industry: encouraging markets to take direct action and influence the policy agenda
- financial markets: the ‘weight of money’, pushed by investment strategies, driving the shift to low emissions
- social movements: activating new and strategic constituencies or sectors
- strategic litigation: a rights-based approach to achieve ambitious and systemic outcomes
The Myer Foundation’s portfolio approach incorporates grants made by the Sustainability & Environment Program, which support organisations seeking to influence key stakeholders to take action on climate change.
Organisations and approaches supported in the current strategic period include:
